The Registered Nurses Union is offering up some suggestions to help alleviate a shortage of nursing staff in the province’s health care system.
RNC President Yvette Coffey says there are currently 600 vacant nursing positions in both acute and chronic care.
She says currently to fill gaps, employers are mandating staff to stay and do 16, 20 or 24 hour shifts, or calling on the day before or even the day of a shift to work overtime.
Her suggestion is to allow Registered Nurses to book overtime shifts in advance.
“They’re paying the overtime anyway,” says Coffey and booking overtime in advance allows nurses some work-life balance.